A. S. Kutsenko and V. M. GranchakPhotochemical synthesis was used to obtain silver nanoparticles in a polymer matrix. The structural and optical properties of the composite material were studied by electron and IR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and electron microscopy. The chemical reactions in polyvinyl alcohol in the preparation of the nanoparticles were studied.Silver nanoparticles (NP) have stronger electron transmission absorption bands (surface plasmons) in the visible range than other metals. Ag NP in organic matrices, mainly in gelatin, have been studied extensively in photographic processes. In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the fluorescence, Raman scattering, nonlinear optical, and photoelectric properties of transparent organic films with Ag NP. Such materials are required in the production of new-generation electronic, optical, and sensor devices and in development of nanolitographic processes. Transparency of the matrix and its photostability, small size of the nanoparticles (about 10 nm diameter), and high nanoparticle concentration are among the requirements for such composite materials.As a rule, the traditional methods for the preparation of Ag NP involve reduction of metal compounds in solution by a reducing agent in the presence of a nanoparticle stabilizer. More and more nontraditional methods for the preparation of Ag NP are appearing such as ion implantation, laser ablation, vacuum evaporation of the metal and an electrocondenser method, biosynthesis, and radiolysis [1]. Radiolysis holds interest since the reduction processes in the reaction systems may be efficiently controlled by smoothly altering the intensity of the radiation, its dose, and the exposure time. There is no need for using traditional reducing agents in the radiolysis method and, in some cases, there is also no need for stabilizers whose excesses and decomposition products are impurities in the final product. This approach to the preparation of NP may be useful for solving difficult problems such as the development of universal and highly efficient methods for the purification of Ag NP dispersions [1]. From a practical viewpoint, photolysis may be a simpler method than radiolysis. Photolysis in the preparation of Ag NP using reducing agents has been used both in solution [2] and films [3].In the present work, we prepared Ag NP not in solution but directly in a polymer film. Thus reduction would be accomplished by a photochemical process, while the polymer would act both as reducing agent, the nanoparticle stabilizer and organic matrix in the creation of a composite polymer material.
EXPERIMENTALMowiol-18-88 polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) supplied by Fluka with molecular mass about 130,000 and residual acetate content 10.0-11.6% and silver nitrate supplied by Aldrich served as the starting materials and were used without further 0040-5760/09/4505-0313
